"It's been a long time since I was a student in Darlene's class, but I remember more of that year than a 24-year-old rightly should about his time as a first-grader. That's undoubtedly a tribute to her and the exceptional work she did with us. Having done a little teaching myself at this point (I taught summer school in New Orleans after Katrina with displaced kids; ran an after-school chess program at a number of schools around Chicago), I know first-hand the challenges of the classroom, and how rare it is that a teacher is able to conjure the kind of magic Darlene brought to us."

“I remember the person: Darlene’s boundless energy, her enthusiasm, her radiance, the quickness and sharpness of her mind. She laid down in the air an ever-present challenge to go one step further, to do more and better than we thought we could.”

“Darlene’s class gave me one of my greatest and most perfect memories of childhood.”

“It was perfection, because in Darlene’s workshop, under her guidance, through her eyes, we opened all the portals and touched the boundless and illimitable world, a sunlit country, which we in those days believed to be the hem of heaven.”